Monroe H. Rosenfeld
Background information
Bornc. 1861
Richmond, Virginia, United States
Died(1918-12-13)December 13, 1918 (aged 57)
New York City, U.S.
GenresTraditional pop music, vaudeville
Occupation(s)Songwriter, journalist, music publisher
Years activec.1880–1918

Monroe H. "Rosey" Rosenfeld (c.1861 – December 13, 1918) was an American songwriter and journalist. In 1895, he was described by Ernest Jarrold in Munsey's Magazine as being in the "front rank" of successful popular song writers, with a reputation as a "graceful, prolific, and versatile composer".[1]

Biography

Rosenfeld was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of German immigrants. By the early 1880s, he was working in New York City as a songwriter, often using pseudonyms such as E. Heiser and F. Belasco. He started having success around 1884 with such songs as "Climbing Up the Golden Stairs", and "Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back", written with Scottish-born composer Felix McGlennon and recorded by Dan Quinn.[2] His other successes as a songwriter included "Johnny Get Your Gun" (1886, credited as F. Belasco), and his most famous work, "With All Her Faults I Love Her Still" (1888), which sold more than 100,000 copies[lower-alpha 1] in piano sheet music.[4] The latter song was based on an earlier tune by Theodore Metz, but Rosenfeld was notorious for making use of lax copyright laws to claim publishing rights in his own name, and sometimes bragged that he stole some of his best tunes. Rosenfeld was regarded as "a master of the tragic boy-girl tale set to music", and became a well-known local character, noted for his loves of poker, women and gambling.[5][6]

Described as "restless and volatile", Rosenfeld also worked as a press agent and journalist. In 1899, he started writing a series of articles on popular music in the New York Herald. Reputedly, he visited the office of songwriter Harry Von Tilzer, who used a piano with muffled keys to reduce the likelihood of complaints from his neighbors, and commented that the sound reminded him of tin cans, to which von Tilzer replied, "Yes, I guess this is a tin pan alley." The phrase was contained in the title of one of Rosenfeld's articles and became widely used as a description of the area of songwriting offices on West 28th Street in Manhattan.[5][6]

In 1917, Rosenfeld became the editor of a music magazine, The Tuneful Yankee, and set up an office to manage music copyrights. He died of "acute indigestion" in 1918, leaving a widow and daughter.[5][7]

Notes

  1. ↑ In 1900, a newspaper report gave a figure of 280,000 copies, and stated that Rosenfeld's songs had earned $500,000.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Jarrold, Ernest (June 1895). "The Makers of Our Popular Songs". Munsey's Magazine. Vol. 13, no. 3. New York: Frank A. Munsey. pp. 289–295 – via HathiTrust.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954: The History of American Popular Music. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc. p. 360. ISBN 0898200830 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ "Favorite Songs and Their Makers". The Times. Vol. 15, no. 210. Richmond, VA. October 28, 1900. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Rehrig, William H. (1991). "Rosenfeld, Monroe H.". The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music: Composers and Their Music. Vol. 2. Westerville, OH: Integrity Press. p. 645. ISBN 0918048087 – via Internet Archive.
  5. 1 2 3 Brumfield, Dale (February 25, 2014). "The Song Thief: How a melodic kleptomaniac from Richmond coined the phrase Tin Pan Alley". Style Weekly. Archived from the original on October 6, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Gammond, Peter (1991). The Oxford Companion to Popular Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 504. ISBN 0193113236 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ "Man Who Wrote "Johnny Get Your Gun" Is Dead". Americus Times-Recorder. Vol. 40, no. 294. December 18, 1918. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
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